The present invention relates to an information retrieval apparatus for retrieving objective data from a great amount of data stored in a storage such as an optical disk storage or a magnetic disk storage, and in particular, to an information retrieval apparatus in which data to be subjected to the retrieval is subdivided into partitions such that the partitions are independently and concurrently retrieved by use of a plurality of retrieval means.
In the conventional information retrieval apparatus, as described for example in the JP-A-60-105040, there is employed a retrieval circuit for a data retrieval. In consequence, as a method to increase the retrieval processing speed in the conventional information retrieval apparatus, it is essential for the retrieval circuit to develop a higher retrieval speed.
However, since the retrieval circuit is the retrieval means including a hardware system to conduct the retrieval through a data matching operation, even when the processing capacity of the hardware is improved, if the data to be processed is increased, the number of data matching circuits becomes to be greater, which leads to a problem that the retrieval time is elongated in proportion to an increment in the data to be subjected to the retrieval processing.